1944’s Meet Me in St Louis “was the first truly great movie from the Freed unit, the MGM department specializing in musicals and headed since 1940 by Arthur Freed, who wrote some of the best songs of the 1920s and 30s and produced several of the finest films of the 20th century,” (Guardian).
Freed … told studio boss Louis B Mayer: ‘I want to make this into the most delightful piece of Americana ever.’ He achieved his aim with a movie that defines perfection, as it captures the spirit of hope and anxiety that informed the last years of the second world war, when it was made … Judy Garland has never been more spirited or more poignant (‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is up there with ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘The Man That Got Away’).” Much of the plot turns on whether the lead character’s family will move to New York City. “When fellow MGM executives demanded to know the source of the film’s dramatic conflict, Freed replied: ‘Where is the villain? Well, the villain is New York!'”
The chorus initially states the melody in the opening in A major, followed by a delayed intro from Garland at 1:24 and a first verse at 1:55. At 2:59, there’s a shift to C# before 3:14 reverts to A major.
“A group of refined waitresses for a chain of railroad-station restaurants in New Mexico are sent out to tame the wild and woolly West in the 19th century, but encounter some resistance in the form of a saloon owner, a corrupt judge and a local madam,” (TV Guide). “Featuring the Oscar-winning song ‘On the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe.'”
“The Harvey Girlswas MGM’s big-budget Technicolor musical follow-up to Meet Me In St. Louis (in between the two Judy filmed her first dramatic role in The Clock as well as her one-scene guest appearance in Ziegfeld Follies),” (TheJudyRoom). “It was based on the 1942 Samuel Hopkins Adams novel of the same name, which was inspired by the real-life ‘Harvey Girls,’ the waitresses who were employed by the Harvey chain of restaurants (still in existence today) placed along the route of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe. The Harvey Girls became one of Judy’s (and MGM’s) biggest musical hits of the 1940s, winning the Oscar for Best Song (‘On The Atchison, Topeka, and The Santa Fe’) and earning a spot on Variety’s list of ‘all-time box office hits.’
“It’s a Great Big World,” a fast but gentle waltz, serves as a feature for several of the musical’s lead characters. It shifts up a half-step at 2:53. Many thanks to our regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission!
Tap cowboy boots? Yep, we’ve got those. The ninth of ten movies co-starring the iconic pairing of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, 1943’s Girl Crazy ends with “I’ve Got Rhythm” staged as a gargantuan Busby Berkeley production number –the very definition of the “Golden Age movie musical.”
From Film Frenzy‘s review: ” … another Rooney-Garland confection where not much of interest happens when everyone isn’t singing or dancing. The Gershwin score is tops, though.” HighDefDigest describes the title as “the best film pairing of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland … Girl Crazy not only showcases the dynamite talents of two enduring dynamos, it also features a first-class score by George and Ira Gershwin that includes such standards as ‘I Got Rhythm,’ ‘Embraceable You,’ and ‘But Not for Me,’ a bubbly cast, and a lavish rodeo finale staged by Busby Berkeley.” Meanwhile, Tommy Dorsey leads his orchestra while playing some top-drawer trombone.
After the intro, the tune begins in earnest at 0:58 in Eb, shifts to F at 1:34, and lands in D at 1:42 — for starters. Thereafter, key changes continue to parade by throughout.
We usually feature an up-tempo track on Fridays. But in light of this week’s invasion of Ukraine, focusing on music’s ability to bolster our common humanity seemed like the best choice for today.
“Finlandia is probably the most widely known of all the compositions of Jean Sibelius,” (This is Finland). “Most people with even a superficial knowledge of classical music recognise the melody immediately. The penultimate hymn-like section is particularly familiar; soon after it was published, the ‘Finlandia Hymn’ was performed with various words as far afield as the USA.”
In 1899, Sibelius composed the music “for a series of tableaux illustrating episodes in Finland´s past … a contribution towards the resistance (against) Russian influence … While Finland was still a Grand Duchy under Russia, performances within the empire had to take place under the covert title of “Impromptu” … In Finland, the ‘Finlandia Hymn’ was not sung until Finnish words for it were written by the opera singer Wäinö Sola in 1937. After the Russian aggression against Finland in 1939 (the Winter War), the Finnish poet V.A. Koskenniemi supplied a new text, the one that has been used ever since. Sibelius arranged the Hymn for mixed choir as late as 1948.”
Keith Bosley’s English translation of Koskenniemi´s text:
Finland, behold, thy daylight now is dawning, the threat of night has now been driven away. The skylark calls across the light of morning, the blue of heaven lets it have its way, and now the day the powers of night is scorning: thy daylight dawns, O Finland of ours!
Finland, arise, and raise towards the highest thy head now crowned with mighty memory. Finland, arise, for to the world thou criest that thou hast thrown off thy slavery, beneath oppression´s yoke thou never liest. Thy morning´s come, O Finland of ours!
The lyrics most frequently used in modern-day protest and worship settings were updated yet again by Lloyd Stone. The third verse is attributed to Georgia Harkness:
This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine; this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine: but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine: O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.
May truth and freedom come to every nation; may peace abound where strife has raged so long; that each may seek to love and build together, a world united, righting every wrong; a world united in its love for freedom, proclaiming peace together in one song*
This contemporary arrangement of the piece (2021), performed by British vocal octet ensemble VOCES8, is by the group’s tenor, Blake Morgan. VOCES8 “is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertoire both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos.”The Guardian describes the ensemble’s sound as “the beauty of perfectly blended unblemished voices.”
After beginning in G# major, there is a modulation up to B major at 2:36. Many thanks to Jackie D. for bringing this arrangement to our attention!
UK composer Benjamin Britten’s classic educational work, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” originated “in an educational film titled Instruments of the Orchestra,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Following World War II, initiatives to better the British people included introducing public secondary schools, health and food support for underprivileged children, and widespread democratization of high art, with the goal of nourishing a moral and productive populace. To this effect, the BBC, the primary radio station of the time, maintained relatively high percentages of classical music on the air. They created such programs as orchestral concerts and music talks for schools, preceded with introductions of each instrument and their sound for recognition during the piece of music.
Britten chose to use Henry Purcell’s Rondo theme from his Abdelazer Suite as a basis for the work and, though some thought this was an easy way out of composing, his choice to reference a British composer was praised by others as a demonstration of his skill in the art of variation, and a link as being the greatest British composer since Purcell. Here is Purcell’s original theme.”
The University of Kentucky breaks down the careful introduction of each instrument family — many of which are accompanied by key changes. “The theme is first played by the full orchestra, then by the various families of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and full orchestra again). Next, Britten shows off the individual instruments by having them play a variation of the theme … There are thirteen variations. Finally, the composition ends with a new tune, first introduced by the piccolo and then played in a fugue (a sort of counterpoint that Britten called “a race between the instruments”) by each of the other instruments of the orchestra until the brass instruments again play the main theme to close the work.”
The original 1946 short film, Instruments ofthe Orchestra:
Comedian John Hodgman came up with a new take on the piece’s narration in the 2010s. An excerpt from his performance with The Boston Pops:
Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul, “Star Eyes” was initially recorded by Stephane Grappelli, praised by NPR as “one of the jazz world’s greatest violinists. Grappelli first found fame in France with Django Reinhart’s Quintette du Hot Club. He went on to an illustrious career playing with everyone from Oscar Peterson to Paul Simon to Yo-Yo Ma.”
In 1943, the tune became part of the soundtrack for the movie I Dood It.IMDB summarizes the plot of the wartime film: “A bumbling pants presser at an upscale hotel’s valet service nurses an unrequited crush on a Broadway star. He gets more than he bargained for when she agrees to marry him, to spite her womanizing fiance, and encounters Nazi saboteurs.” Variety gave the film a tepid review: “Metro has wrapped Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, among other names, around a popular Skelton radio phrase that’s used for the film’s title, and the net result is moderate entertainment. I Dood It is, by Metro’s usual standards, not one of its best musicals, but that’s due mostly to the screenplay. While the plot of a musical can generally be accepted only as a cue for the song-and-dance, the failing is particularly apparent in Dood It.”
Other than the soundtrack, a redeeming facet of the film is that it managed to feature jazz pianist Hazel Scott and triple-threat Lena Horne, two pillars of the African-American arts community (though Scott was born in Trinidad). Both women later became known for their civil rights activism.
After the tune starts in Db major with Bob Elberly on vocals, 1:32 brings a quickening tempo and a harmonically unsettled transition. At 1:52, the big band’s conductor, the one and only Jimmy Dorsey, stops keeping time and delivers an all-too-short alto sax solo in G major. At 2:19, it’s Helen O’Connor’s turn to shine, with a section in Bb major.
A big thanks to Jamie A. for another wonderful submission!
According to the American Film Institute, 1949’s The Kissing Bandit was a film whose production hit more than a few bumps in the road: The film went through many iterations of casting before the leads Kathryn Grayson and Frank Sinatra were finalized. “The film is set in the early nineteenth century. Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a robber known as the Kissing Bandit. He however is a shy, Boston-bred young man who does not know how to sit on a horse … the film became jokingly known as one of MGM’s biggest ‘flops’ and an acknowledged low point in the careers of Sinatra and Grayson.”
The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television reported that the film was a financial disaster, earning $969,000 in the US and Canada and $412,000 overseas, resulting in a loss to MGM of $2,643,000. This made it one of the least successful musicals in MGM history.
But given its lovely melody, “What’s Wrong With Me” survived as a standout from the production. With music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Earl K. Brent, the tune provided a good showcase for Grayson and Sinatra. A downward half-step modulation kicks in at 2:22 in the transition between Grayson’s and Sinatra’s respective solo sections.
Many thanks to Jamie A. for this contribution — hopefully the first of many!
“As the composer recalled at an 81st birthday celebration held at the Library of Congress,” reports NPR, “on the same tiny stage where ‘Appalachian Spring’ premiered in 1944…’I was really putting Martha Graham to music. I had seen her dancing so many times, and I had a sense of her personality as a creative office. I had — really in front of my mind I wasn’t thinking about the Appalachians or even spring. So that I had no title for it. It was a ballet for Martha, was actually the subtitle that I had.’
By the time he received the $500 commission to create his ballet for Martha Graham, Aaron Copland was one of America’s most important composers. Throughout the 1920s and early ’30s, he created work in a modernist style, music that was prickly and angular, frequently utilizing elements of jazz. But by the early ’40s, he moved towards a more populist style, with such pieces as ‘Fanfare for the Common Man,’ ‘Lincoln Portrait’ and ‘Rodeo.'”
In an interview with the BBC, Copland said he made use of folk music was because it was free. “The principal attraction for me in a folk song was that it was an easy way to sound American.” The piece premiered in October 1944. The Graham company toured with the ballet; on 1945’s V-E Day, Copland won a Pulitzer Prize for the work.
Beginning in A major, movement 2 of “Appalachian Spring” transitions to C major at 0:26, but reverts to A major at 0:48. By 1:28, F major is in play, and not for the last time — and the movement touches on other keys as well.
Here’s the entire piece, conducted by the composer in 1980:
Written by Jerome Kern and E.Y. Harburg for the eponymous 1944 film, “Can’t Help Singing” is performed here by Rebecca Luker, who passed away from ALS late last month at age 59. Luker had an illustrious Broadway career that spanned three decades and was known for her luminous soprano voice. “During her audition Rebecca brought such a freshness to the music, as if I had never heard the score before,” said Susan H. Schulman, who directed Luker as Maria in a 1998 production of The Sound of Music. “Little hairs stood up on the back of my neck. You don’t expect songs that you are so familiar with to take you by surprise that way. She has the most glorious voice. The instrument is so pure.”
Luker is survived by her husband and fellow Broadway actor Danny Burstein. This track is included on Luker’s 2013 album I Got Love, featuring the music of Kern. Key change at 1:53.
Canadian jazz vocalist Diana Krall makes her MotD debut today with the jazz standard “But Beautiful,” the first track on her fifteenth studio album, This Dream of You, which was released last Friday. Krall, a three-time Grammy winner and one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz chart. Her unique, smoky vocal style and understated arrangements have led to 15 million albums sold worldwide. There’s a key change at 2:17, with a return to the original key at 3:22.
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